The Advertiser: UPA bridge to reopen Saturday, July 21 as pedestrian walkway

After two years of circumventing chain link fences or circling around residential areas, University Place Apartments residents will once again be able to safely — and legally —cross the coulee to classes, the Advertiser reported.

The pedestrian bridge, slated to open July 1, provides UPA residents a quick walk onto campus near Legacy Park Apartments. The bridge’s reopening comes a little less than a year after Lafayette city-parish government negotiated an agreement that said UPA owns the area and is responsible for its upkeep.

The wording in the bridge’s dedication to “the city of Lafayette” caused confusion in 2015, when city officials, who previously believed the bridge to be private property, discovered the bridge was public property, according to a 2015 Advocate report. City officials closed the bridge to vehicular and pedestrian traffic in 2015.

Sorting out the issue in October 2016, the city provided 200 Oakcrest LLC, which owns the complexes and the property, with $100,000 to renovate the bridge in addition to assisting clearing the coulee following the 2016 flooding event. Although the final price of the bridge was not mentioned in the article, the bridge’s estimated cost was $700,000.